was making towards this when the scream of a frightened horse dissipated the silence, and a noment later the animal came into view, galloping furiously hrough the boulders and brush which littered the approach o the pass.
'A woman!' the puncher ejaculated. 'What the hell ...?' His question was soon answered; little more than a hundred paces behind, a long, lithe tawny form flashed in the sunlight as it leapt over an obstacle in pursuit of its prey. The dangling reins told that the rider had lost control of her mount; clinging desperately to the saddle-horn, she could only urge it on in the vain hope of outrunning the peril. But the spectator saw another danger of which she evidently knew nothing : crazed by terror, the pony was racing blindly for the edge of the plateau and a sheer drop of a thousand feet on to the jagged rocks below.
A word, and Nigger shot away to the right in an endeavour to intercept the fugitives, the mighty muscles bunching under the silken skin and transforming the animal into a black thunderbolt. A few tense moments at full speed and Sudden, standing in his stirrups, whirled his rope.
'Steady, boy,' he warned, as the loop settled over the head of the runaway, and Nigger slowed down sufficiently to check the captive pony without throwing it. For a few more yards the maddened beast fought onwards, but the increasing drag of the rope and the choking effect of the tightening noose prevailed; it pulled up, spent and trembling, almost on the brink of the abyss.
One peril was past, but another still threatened. The mountain lion--doubtless made bold by hunger--was not content to be baulked of its booty and was preparing to spring when Sudden's bullet smashed into its brain. With a word to his horse, the puncher got down, stepped swiftly to the woman and lifted her limp form from the saddle.
'Everythin's right now, ma'am,' he assured her. 'How yu feelin'?'
'Damned queer,' was the surprising answer, as she subsided on a near-by stone. 'What possessed my pony to jerk the reins from my hands and bolt like a mad thing?'
'A big cat was needin' a meal--badly, I guess,' he told her, and, when she looked round fearfully, added, 'He ain't needin' it no longer.'
'So that was the shot,' she said, and for a space was silent, studying him.
Through narrowed lids, he returned the scrutiny. She was young, about his own age, he estimated, and, in any company, would be adjudged a beautiful woman. Thick braided coils of ebon hair matched the velvety darkness of her slumbrous eyes; a straight nose, full lips, and rounded cheeks which the sun had but faintly tinted, formed a face which compelled admiration. She was tall, for a woman, and her smart riding-costume displayed her fine, well-built figure to perfection. Presently she smiled, showing white, even teeth.
'It just comes to me that I haven't thanked you for saving me from being devoured,' she said. 'But perhaps the lion would have preferred the pony.''
'I reckon not, if he'd any taste,' Sudden said.
She smiled again at the compliment. 'Why did you stop us before shooting the beast? Suppose you had missed ...'
'Mebbe it was a risk, but I didn't expect to miss.'
His gaze went involuntarily to the edge of the plateau; she rose and stepped towards it, only to come hurrying back, horror and contrition in her eyes.
'Forgive me, my friend,' she cried. 'You have saved me from a dreadful death, and I find fault. I did not know ...'
'Shucks,' he smiled. 'Nothin' to that, ma'am; yu may be able to help me one day.'
'If that time ever comes, you may rely upon me,' she said soberly. 'But for now, I should like to know to whom I am indebted.'
He gave his name, adding that he was riding for Keith. 'The Double K? Aren't you off your range a little?'
'I'm kind o' new, an' don't know the lay-out,' he explained. 'Took a notion to come up here an' look around.'
'Which was as well for me. Do you think my horse can be trusted to carry me home?'
'I reckon.' He whistled, and Nigger trotted up, the other animal having perforce to follow. The woman's eyes swept over the black approvingly.
'Your own?' she asked, and when he nodded, 'Take care of him, my friend; he's a temptation.'
'Any stranger who tried to ride him would have a real interestin' time,' the puncher told her.
He went to her pony, which was still wild-eyed and nervous, but when he had slipped the noose from its neck, soothed and spoken to it for a moment or two, it quietened down and allowed its mistress to mount.
'You seem to understand horses,' she commented.
'I was raised among 'em,' he said. 'Like dawgs, they know their friends.' He coiled his rope, and got into his own saddle. 'An' where now?'
'I'm going to look for my hat--it fell off,' she replied, but when he offered to help she shook her head. 'You have done enough, and I shall remember, but we part here.'
'For good?' he queried.
'Quien saber'' She smiled. 'Fate, having brought us together so dramatically, must mean us to meet again.'
He clasped the firm, gloved hand she extended and turned his horse southwards. It was only when she had vanished among the trees that he remembered she had not told him her name--the brand on the pony was his only clue to her identity. Cursing himself for a bonehead, he retraced his steps to the plain, where he soon met Frosty.
'Thought I heard a shot,' that young man greeted.''Yu did--ran into a mountain lion.
'Git him?'
'Yeah,' Sudden replied. 'Anybody own a B D iron around here?'
'No, an' we don't usually brand our lions neither,' was the flippant answer.
'Nor yore jackasses--at least, I ain't noticed yu wearin' one,' Sudden returned pleasantly.
It was some time later that, without even a warning chuckle, Frosty emitted a bellow of laughter which sent both their mounts into the air, and it was some moments before they could convince the startled animals that the end of the world had not arrived. Even Nigger, who would stand like a rock when a pistol was discharged by his ear, was not proof against that explosive shriek of merriment. When quiet had been restored, Sudden looked disgustedly at the cause of the trouble.
'What's the idea, yu snowy-pated pie-eater, tryin' to bust our necks thataway?' he demanded.
'I just remembered somethin',' the culprit spluttered, suppressing a second outburst with difficulty.
'Must be a helluva joke if yu've on'y just seen it.'
'Shore is,' his friend grinned. 'Might them letters, B D, stand for `Bewitchin' Damsel'?' Getting no response, he went on, 'She's a good-looker all right, but so is a cactus or a cougar an' they're safer to have truck with.'
Sudden spoke to his steed. 'Don't yu never eat locoweed, ol' hoss, now yu see what it does. Here's a fella who looks a'most intelligent at times, an'--'
'Quit joshin', Jim,' Frosty broke in. 'B D means Belle Dalroy, an' her address is Hell City. Come clean.'
Whereupon Sudden told his adventure, which drew a long whistle from his companion. 'She's reputed to be hand and glove with Satan an' as cold-blooded as a frawg,' he said.
'She seemed very grateful; might be useful if ever we go visitin' there.'
'If ever we go? Leave me out, cowboy; I'd as soon try the real place.'
'Oh, I dunno; it'd be kind o' interestin'.'
'Yeah, Scar an' his crew would make it that for yu.'
He got no reply; Sudden's mind was busy with the woman, wondering what had brought her to this refuge of the reckless. Was she, too, in hiding? It was more than possible, for with all her beauty, he had sensed a hardness which told of contacts with a world which had not been too kind. He became aware that Frosty was speaking.
'If I hear o' yu tryin' to go there alone, yu an' me'll take the floor together.'
At which Sudden laughed and was well content.
The guard at the entrance to Hell City did not keep Belle Dalroy waiting, the ponderous gate swinging back as she reached it. With a smile of thanks she passed through and rode to the Chief's quarters. Here again she encountered no difficulty; even before she knocked, the door opened. She passed the dwarf with a mere glance and
